Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area

by Urban Ecology, Inc., 405 14th Street, Suite 900, Oakland, CA 94612; 510/251-6332, 510/251-2117 (fax), ueblueprint@igc.apc.org (e-mail). 1996, paperback, 144 pages, $27.

If information about smart choices must be presented in an attractive format to get attention, Urban Ecology has done just that.

Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area is beautifully laid-out on glossy paper, with lots of color photographs. But it’s not just the packaging—the content is extremely well done, too. The team at Urban Ecology has taken what could have been a dry list of recommendations, and put them into a context that makes them both interesting and compelling. The case against suburban sprawl, for example, is made with photos and examples of what’s wrong with it, alongside equally well-illustrated case studies of the alternatives.

Most of the book presents problems and solutions on a gradually increasing scale—from individual homes, to neighborhoods, to urban areas, to the entire region. The book is so rich in so many different types of information that it would be confusing if it weren’t organized and laid-out so clearly. All specific recommendations, for example, appear in bullet form marked by a square, orange box. The end-matter includes an index, glossary, resource listing, and several pages of acknowledgments, listing the dozens of people who took part in the process that culminated in this document.

Framing the book’s content are principles of sustainable development (see sidebar) at the beginning, and a sort of mission statement at the end. The mission reads:

“A Sustainable Bay Area supports and improves the quality of life of all its residents and recognizes the inter-dependence of the people, culture, economy, and urbanized and natural environments.

“More importantly, it is a region that knows itself, demands the utmost of itself, and understands what it has to lose.”